When the SLS Finally Flies
Nov. 16th, 2022 08:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerIn the fullness of time designs turned into hardware and that hardware was rolled out to the launch pad, and I did start thinking a bit more about the impending first launch of the “Artemis Program.” I was conscious of the absolute contempt directed by a certain number of writers and commentators towards the “Space Launch System” rocket as put together to keep people who’d worked on the space shuttles employed. It’s possible, though, that my “sympathy towards the put-upon” set in towards NASA back when my suspicions that “fandoms” aren’t about “enjoying a story” only had Starlog letter pages glanced at from magazine racks to go on.
In any case I was at least interested in watching the launch. My first thoughts were of heading to one of the elevator lobbies at work, where TV sets are forever turned to the local news-bites channel. When it seemed one of the engines wasn’t cooling down the launch was cancelled that day, though. I then thought I’d be able to watch the coverage streaming on the weekend, but that day there was a serious hydrogen leak. By this point I was trying to deal with thoughts that “if the small details aren’t taken care of, there could be big problems.” Fuelling tests did seem to work, but then the rocket had to be put back in the Vehicle Assembly Building as a hurricane blew by, and once it was at the pad again it had to ride out another storm there.
By this point the launch window had shifted to one in the morning. Staying up that late on a weekday just didn’t seem reasonable, so I resolved to catch up in the morning. One of the last reports the night before was of another hydrogen leak and plans to send daring people out to tighten bolts, so I was uncertain when I got up to the point of daring graveyard jocularity. When I checked at last, though, Artemis I was on its way. Catching up to a brief video clip I did notice the commentator seemed more excited than usual as the rocket took off faster than my impressions of Saturn V launches. It was pointed out this night launch followed not quite fifty years after Apollo 17’s night launch, although I did get to looking and confirmed it had been a bit more than fifty-five years since Apollo 4’s test launch.
In any case I was at least interested in watching the launch. My first thoughts were of heading to one of the elevator lobbies at work, where TV sets are forever turned to the local news-bites channel. When it seemed one of the engines wasn’t cooling down the launch was cancelled that day, though. I then thought I’d be able to watch the coverage streaming on the weekend, but that day there was a serious hydrogen leak. By this point I was trying to deal with thoughts that “if the small details aren’t taken care of, there could be big problems.” Fuelling tests did seem to work, but then the rocket had to be put back in the Vehicle Assembly Building as a hurricane blew by, and once it was at the pad again it had to ride out another storm there.
By this point the launch window had shifted to one in the morning. Staying up that late on a weekday just didn’t seem reasonable, so I resolved to catch up in the morning. One of the last reports the night before was of another hydrogen leak and plans to send daring people out to tighten bolts, so I was uncertain when I got up to the point of daring graveyard jocularity. When I checked at last, though, Artemis I was on its way. Catching up to a brief video clip I did notice the commentator seemed more excited than usual as the rocket took off faster than my impressions of Saturn V launches. It was pointed out this night launch followed not quite fifty years after Apollo 17’s night launch, although I did get to looking and confirmed it had been a bit more than fifty-five years since Apollo 4’s test launch.